Sighing, she pressed her forehead against his shoulder. “You clearly made your point, beast.”
“I did. As well as an enemy I’m sure still wants to gut me.”
Tanis shook her head at him. “What am I going to do with you?”
“If you were smart, you’d run back to your father and keep your head down till all of this blows over.”
Tanis paused at the sincerity she heard in his voice. She probably should. It was the smart thing to do. And she had no idea why she was still here.
He’d set her free. She could seek her brother’s head on her own.
Just days ago, finding her brother’s killer had been the most important thing in the world to her. So important that she’d made an unbelievable bargain.
With a unicorn—a hated creature that two weeks ago she wouldn’t have spit on had he been on fire.
Then she’d met this enigmatic one with searing green eyes that haunted her. Strange that she’d only known him for these handful of days, and yet it seemed like a lifetime had passed since they’d joined forces.
The last thing anyone who knew her would call her was a romantic. She didn’t believe in love or romance of any kind. Didn’t believe in much of anything other than misery and cruelty.
But her unicorn made her want to believe in impossible things.
What scared her now was the fact that he most likely wouldn’t survive this.
That he’d leave her life as quickly as he’d entered it.
“You really have pissed off everyone, haven’t you?” she asked.
He sighed heavily. “I’ve done my best.”
“Was that really the only way to have peace?”
Dash shrugged. “I tried to be nice when I was young. I swear I did. They took it as an invitation to walk all over me. They mistook kindness for weakness. My policy was to ask, then kick their ass. Sadly, ass kicking accomplished a lot more than asking nicely.”
“You sound like my father.”
But she saw the weariness in his eyes. The sadness. “Can I let you in on a secret, Dragon?”
“Sure.”
“Having lived through hell, I’d rather have not.”
That, she well understood as she struggled with the same feelings every day of her life. Sometimes it wasn’t so bad, then others...
It was hard to make through a single hour. “Me, too, Dash. Me, too.”
He put his arm around her and held her close.
Tanis listened to his strong heart beating beneath her cheek. Last week, her worst fear had been living without her brother.
Now it was losing a unicorn she barely knew.
It was so weird. How had he come to mean so much to her so quickly?
Was it because Davin was gone, and she didn’t want to be alone? Or because Dash saw her when others didn’t? That he knew the same pain that haunted her?
She had no idea.
It wasn’t like she hadn’t been alone before. She had. She’d long ago reconciled herself to the fact that she would never have anyone in her life.
